Big Brother (UK)
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- For the current series, see Big Brother 2008 (UK).
Big Brother is a reality television series broadcast in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Channel 4 and E4. Part of the Big Brother franchise first developed in the Netherlands, it is also broadcast with Welsh subtitles on S4C in Wales.
The premise of the gameshow is for contestants to live in isolation from the outside world in a custom built house. The winner is the last contestant remaining in the house at the end of the series as housemates are evicted by a weekly public phone vote. The prize is a large sum of cash. The show's name comes from George Orwell's 1949 novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopia in which Big Brother is the all-seeing, omnipotent leader of Oceania.
The main shows are hosted by Davina McCall and narrated by Marcus Bentley. The show premiered on Channel 4 on 14 July 2000. It is produced by Brighter Pictures, a company of Endemol. The show was an instant hit with up to 10 million viewers tuning in.
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[edit] Main series
Davina McCall is the host of the main show and the Live Eviction shows and Dermot O'Leary was the presenter of the companion show Big Brother's Little Brother, however, on 27 November 2007, it was revealed that he will not return for the future Big Brother series' but he hosted Celebrity Hijack. The new presenters for the 2008 series have been confirmed to be George Lamb and Zezi Ifore.
Although the ethics of the show, and of some of its contestants, have sometimes been questioned,[1] its continued popularity has ensured its survival.
The ninth series will launch on Thursday, 5th June 2008. It has also been confirmed that a 10th and 11th series of Big Brother UK will be aired, which include the celebrity version, all of its subsidiary shows and E4 streaming.[2]
However, it was announced on August 28th 2007 that Celebrity Big Brother 2008 will be removed from the usual Big Brother lineup.[3] The ITV director of television, Simon Shaps, is believed to have talked to Endemol about the contract, but it is understood the network did not make a formal offer for Big Brother.[4][5]
Each daily show is repeated the following morning in Channel 4's breakfast schedule, and is censored to allow younger viewers to watch. The same show is repeated on E4 later in the afternoon. Live shows on Fridays are repeated on late Saturday mornings on Channel 4's teen strand T4 and repeated in the evenings on E4.
In T4 and E4 repeats, any entrance or exit of a housemate are usually edited darker to lower the brightness of camera flashes and with the action slowed down, although this causes severe ghosting in the television picture. This is possibly to lower the risk of flashing cameras to sufferers of photosensitive epilepsy, even though Channel 4 does not broadcast with lower brightness (although continuity warnings are usually announced).
[edit] Logo
The iconic logo is in the shape of an eye. Since Big Brother 2, every UK series has featured a new ‘eye’ design designed by Daniel Eatock. The first series had a human eye as the logo (revealed, during her exit interview, to be that belonging to contestant Melanie Hill). The eye is chosen to signify the fact that Big Brother is ‘always watching’ and has become an iconic piece of art. Most series around the world have adopted the eye in their logo.
[edit] Auditions
Big Brother open auditions have been held around the UK and Republic of Ireland since Big Brother 2004 and online via video since Big Brother 2006. Before this, housemates had to send audition tapes to the studios.
[edit] Format
Each week, the housemates individually go to the Diary Room and nominate two fellow housemates for eviction. The two or more housemates with the most nominations are then revealed to the House, and the public are invited to vote for who they wish to evict by calling a housemates' premium rate telephone number. The housemate who receives the greatest percentage of the public vote is evicted. Until Series 8, viewers were able to vote by text messaging
Series 7 housemate, Sezer Yurtseven, holds the record for highest eviction percentage. Sezer was evicted in early June 2006 (week two) of Big Brother 7 with 91.6% of the vote, reportedly due to his televised antics.[6] Initially ranked in May 2006 as the fourth most likely to win (behind Pete Bennett, Imogen Thomas and Richard Newman),[7] the then 26-year-old stockbroker was the fifth to leave the house but only the second evicted.[8] Model Lea Walker and waiter Richard Newman survived the vote.[8]
The closest eviction vote so far was between Alison Hammond and Alex Sibley of Big Brother 3, who received 38.52% and 38.44% respectively, a difference of just 1,027 votes.[9] This also happened with Series 8 housemates Kara-Louise Horne (30.8%) and Jonty Stern (30.7%).
Mark Owen won Celebrity Big Brother 2 with 77%, the highest winning percentage in Big Brother UK history across both the celebrity and regular series. Nadia Almada's 74% win in 2004 was the largest of the regular series.[10]
Brian Belo won Big Brother 8 and in doing so, became the first housemate to win after entering the house late, he also became the first ever Black Big Brother UK Winner.
[edit] House
For the first two series, the house was located in Bow, London near to the Three Mills Studios. After planning permission expired in 2002, Newham Council ordered the complex to be returned to a natural habitat.
Subsequent series have taken place at Elstree Studios. The house is built on top of the studios' old underwater tank, and it is believed that after the last series of Big Brother ends in 2010, it will be restored to an underwater tank again. For the 9th series of the show, it was originally thought that the house could be moving to a new location rumoured to be in Hammersmith; however it has recently been confirmed that the show will still be broadcast from Elstree Studios for at least a further two years.
The interior design of the house changes each year to suit the theme of the series. For example, the Big Brother 5 house was claustrophobic, with harsh colour schemes, while series 7 had an "Inside Out" theme with mood lighting that could be changed by the producers to reflect the mood of the housemates. Exclusive pictures of the reportedly new Big Brother 9 house were published in Heat magazine, although it has been confirmed that Big Brother will remain at its current location in Elstree Studios until 2010. It is un-certain if Big Brother UK will move to a new location after the current contract at Elstree Studios expires.
The house for series nine has been confirmed to be the largest so far.
The house is situated just meters from The George Lucas Stage in which the Big Brother spin-off Big Brother's Little Brother is filmed, as well as the Housemate interviews after they have been evicted.
[edit] Tasks
Housemates are regularly set tasks by Big Brother. These vary from a short job for one housemate (often conducted without the other housemates' knowledge) to tasks over several days involving the whole house. Shorter tasks are generally rewarded with "treats" such as cigarettes or alcohol. There is a main weekly task to determine whether the housemates receive a luxury shopping budget or basic rations only. Tasks often involve an element of performance, dressing up, or artistic endeavour. In more recent series, some tasks have also rewarded or punished housemates with regard to nominations.
Series 3 of Big Brother introduced the Saturday night "Big Brother: Live Task", which would determine on which side of the rich/poor divide individual housemates would live for the forthcoming week. The live tasks were continued throughout Big Brother 4, with winners treated to a hidden "reward room" for the evening. Live Saturday evening tasks were discontinued during Big Brother 5.
[edit] Aspect ratio
Series 1 to 6 of Big Brother (2000–2005), including the four corresponding series of Celebrity Big Brother, were some of the very few programmes on mainstream British terrestrial television that were broadcast in the old 4:3 aspect ratio as opposed to the more common 16:9 widescreen format. (Except the Big Brother Panto, which was in widescreen). The reason for this is unclear, but was believed to be because of the size of some of the cameras. However, from Big Brother 7 (2006) the aspect ratio has been switched in favour of the 16:9 format, with Big Brother, and all of its sister shows broadcasting in widescreen.
[edit] Live streaming
Channel 4 has made available live pictures and audio from the Big Brother house. However, approximately a 20 minute delay is in place so that audio and/or pictures can be censored to comply with TV regulations. This is also obvious when housemates discuss the time in the big brother house and when they have done so the time is commonly 20-25 minutes behind than the time of viewing.
The action from within the house is streamed live over the Internet for a one-off fee subscription that lasts until the end of a series, and for free to broadband customers of sponsors Virgin Media.
Since the second series, Channel 4's sister station E4 has also carried live pictures and audio from the Big Brother House. An interactive service available to digital satellite viewers allows 24/7 access to the stream, even when E4 is carrying normal programming.
[edit] Theme tune
The theme tune was written and produced by Paul Oakenfold and Andy Gray. It was released as a single in September 2000 under the name "Element Four" and peaked at number four in the UK Singles Chart. It is also used for the Bulgarian series.
[edit] International Broadcasts
The Polish station TVN are airing two series of the show.[11]
[edit] Sponsorships
| Series | Sponsor | Slogan | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Big Brother 1 | Southern Comfort | ||
| Big Brother 2 | BT Cellnet | It's The Buzz | |
| Big Brother 3 | O2 | Get Connected | See note 1 |
| Celebrity Big Brother 2 | |||
| Big Brother 4 | |||
| Teen Big Brother | |||
| Big Brother 5 | TalkTalk | Get Together | |
| Big Brother Panto | |||
| Celebrity Big Brother 3 | |||
| Big Brother 6 | |||
| Celebrity Big Brother 4 | The Carphone Warehouse | Get Star Treatment | See note 2 |
| Big Brother 7 | Get Together | ||
| Celebrity Big Brother 5 | Get Star Treatment | See note 3 |
|
| Big Brother 8 | Virgin Media | For a Happy House | See note 4 |
| Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack | Virgin Mobile UK | See note 5 |
|
| Big Brother 9 | Virgin Mobile UK |
- Note 1: BT Cellnet changed its name to O2, the sponsor is therefore the same as the previous series.
- Note 2: The Carphone Warehouse is the parent company of TalkTalk, the previous sponsor.
- Note 3: Due to the race row the sponsorship was cut off half way through the series.
- Note 4: The cost of this sponsorship was £2.5 Million.
- Note 5: Although the change of the name of the sponsor, it is still the same company and the same sponsor adverts were used.
[edit] Shows
[edit] Spin-off series
[edit] Celebrity Big Brother
Originally created as a one-off tie-in series by Channel 4 in association with the BBC's Comic Relief charity telethon, Celebrity Big Brother is now a full spin-off of Big Brother UK, shown on Channel 4, S4C, E4, E4+1 and Internet live streaming and downloading, backed up with email and SMS text news reports to subscribers.
The series features a number of celebrity contestants living in the Big Brother House, trying to avoid eviction by the public with the aim of winning a large cash prize to be donated to the winner's nominated charity at the end of the run. The show uses the same house and presenters as the non-celebrity version of the most recent series, but the time length is shorter than a normal Big Brother UK series. The celebrities are normally paid for their appearances, on the basis that they don't voluntarily leave.
The first Celebrity Big Brother was aired nightly on Channel 4 with the finale broadcast live on BBC One on Comic Relief night in 2001. Subsequent Celebrity Big Brothers have not involved the BBC or Comic Relief in any way, and the charities involved are given far less publicity than in the first series.
The series took a break for Teen Big Brother, which was shown in 2003 and given a revised repeat in 2004, between 2005 and 2007 it was a regular part of Channel 4's winter schedule.
- Celebrity Big Brother 2001
- Celebrity Big Brother 2002
- Celebrity Big Brother 2005
- Celebrity Big Brother 2006
- Celebrity Big Brother 2007
On 17 January 2007, Celebrity Big Brother caused a record number of complaints to Ofcom, with more than 45,500 people contacting the regulator[12] and 3,000 contacting Channel 4 over allegedly bullying and racist remarks against Indian actress Shilpa Shetty. It was reported on 18 January 2007 that Carphone Warehouse had temporarily withdrawn its estimated £3m sponsorship of Big Brother and Celebrity Big Brother, in the wake of the controversy.[13] On the 8 March 2007, Carphone Warehouse permanently dropped its sponsorship of the show.[14] Speaking in the Commons, the then Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had not seen the show but opposed "racism in all its forms".[15][16]
Paris Hilton was rumoured to be interested in becoming a contestant in the 2008 series for a seven-figure sum.[17]
However, on August 24, 2007, Channel 4 boss Julian Bellamy announced that Celebrity Big Brother would not return in 2008 and added that the show's future will be decided next year, saying "There's a general issue of supply and demand and it's getting harder to book celebrities." He added he would prefer to build up anticipation for Big Brother 9 which begins in May 2008.[18]
On January 15, 2008, Big Brother host Davina McCall hinted on Channel 4 daytime show Richard & Judy that Celebrity Big Brother would return for another series in its original form in January 2009. She hinted the same thing on the Chris Moyles Show on 13 March 2008.
[edit] Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack
Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack was a new pilot series that aired on E4. It was hosted by Dermot O'Leary,[19] which was his final Big Brother series.[20] Big Brother: Celebrity Hijack launched on January 3 both on Channel 4 and E4. After the launch, all Big Brother programmes are only aired on E4. It was announced by Channel 4 on October 8, 2007.[21] The series was a twist on the Celebrity Big Brother format. Instead of the celebrities playing the role of housemates, the celebrities become Big Brother himself. The housemates of the show are 18–21 year olds.[21]. It is rumoured that BB:CH will NOT be returning for a second series in 2009, instead the original Celebrity Big Brother format will be returning.
[edit] Teen Big Brother
Teen Big Brother was a special version of Big Brother, where eight 18 year olds lived in the Big Brother House for ten days. The series was aired in October 2003 on Channel 4 and E4.
Unlike all other Big Brother series, Teen Big Brother was pre-recorded and shown some months after the contestants had left the House. During the series' broadcast, it was involved in a scandal over two of the housemates having sex on television.
[edit] Big Brother Panto
E4 and T4 broadcast the special Big Brother Panto' series, bringing together ten members of the various Big Brother series to perform a pantomime of Cinderella. It was aired from 20 December 2004 to 5 January 2005.
[edit] Criticisms and controversy
During Big Brother 4 there was a bomb scare. At 7:58 on Day 43, Big Brother asked all housemates to go to the boys bedroom until further notice because of a security alert inside the studios. The staff had left 20 minutes earlier, except for senior members of the production team who watched the housemates from behind the mirrors. The Big Brother gallery was unmanned after police advised staff to leave the house. At 8:43, Police advised that the house be evacuated. But since the gallery was unmanned, Big Brother had no method of communicating with the house, so staff had to enter. Senior members of the production team lead the housemates out via the camera runs, and they were taken to a secure area on the perimeter of the studio complex with 2 chaperones and 4 security guards. At 12:49am, the housemates were allowed to return after police gave the all clear. The eviction took place the following day.
In Big Brother 5, on what is commonly referred to as 'Fight Night', volatile ex-housemates Emma Greenwood and Michelle Bass returned to the Big Brother house after a fake eviction. Some of the housemates were extremely displeased, and after a series of arguments, Greenwood and Bass along with Jason Cowan, Marco Sabba, eventual winner Nadia Almada, Vanessa Nimmo and Victor Ebuwa became involved in an aggressive brawl. Viewers of live streaming called the police to inform them of the violent activity and, for the first time in the show's history, on-set security guards were called into the house to break up the arguments.
Big Brother 6, was heavily criticised for the amount of nudity shown on the show; after a midnight "romp" in the pool housemate Makosi Musambasi claimed to have conceived Anthony Hutton's child and asked for a pregnancy test. In addition, housemate Kinga Karolczak masturbated with a wine bottle in the garden.
In Celebrity Big Brother 4, housemate Pete Burns claimed that his coat was made from gorilla skin; after viewers called in to Ofcom, police removed the coat for testing. Ownership of products made from gorilla is illegal in the UK without a licence. Tests found the coat was in fact made of Colobus monkeys, another endangered species. As a result the case was passed to the Crown Prosecution Service who determined that the pelts used to make the coat were imported before 1975 (the year it became illegal to import Colobus fur) and as such did not press charges. This greatly upset animal rights campaigners.
Big Brother 7 came under criticism when critics claimed that Big Brother had deliberately put unstable people into the house. Housemate Shahbaz Chauhdry referred to himself as a "Paki poof" in his audition video, upsetting the British Asian community. He also threatened to commit suicide as well as stealing all the food out of the kitchen. He decided to walk on day 4 and admitted that he was mentally unstable. 7 days into the show, housemate Dawn Blake received a message in the house from her family, via Big Brother, saying "your sister is ill". This turned out to be a code message that Dawn had organised with her family before entering the Big Brother House, that the family promised they would send to her in the house if any newspapers, magazines or other media had made disparaging comments or judgements about Dawn in the outside world, so that Dawn could then leave. Dawn let her housemates know about this to some extent when she was heard whispering to them "I have a code". The producers of the show eventually caught on and although Dawn said she was leaving anyway, when she was called to the Diary Room the following day Big Brother told her that she had broken a major rule by being in contact with the outside world, and that she was being ejected from the house. When the housemates were made aware of Dawn's rule-breaking and ejection from the house, they surmised that any person who goes into the Big Brother house is going to have both good and bad comments made about them by the media and public, and that Dawn was naïve to enter the house in the first place if this was not her expectation. The public were given the opportunity to vote a previously evicted member back into the house. Thousands of complaints were made following Nikki's return to the house claiming that Channel 4 had misled the public when she had been voted out of the house originally. ICSTIS ruled Channel 4 had breached its code and imposed £50,000 'administrative charges'.
In Celebrity Big Brother 5, a worldwide debate was created by housemates Jade Goody (who had appeared on the non-celebrity version of the show four years previously), singer Jo O'Meara and model Danielle Lloyd. The row was sparked when alleged racist comments were made about Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty, who was also a housemate in the show. A record number of 45,000 complaints were recorded for the unfair behaviour, bullying and racism in the UK Big Brother House, with protests across India. The then Chancellor of the Exchequer (Now Prime Minister) Gordon Brown, visiting India at the time, found himself answering questions on Big Brother throughout his trip, and a wider debate on racism in the UK was raised by the media. The 3 housmates involved were not removed from the house, and faced eviction in the normal way, although during Jade's eviction, no crowd was present. For all 3, the normally lighthearted eviction interview was serious in tone, and began by showing clips of international news bulletins and newspaper front pages. Shilpa emerged as the winner of Celebrity Big Brother 2007. Following the incident, Channel 4 was heavily criticized by Ofcom for not acting quickly enough, and was forced to apologize on air three times. See also Celebrity Big Brother racism controversy.
In Big Brother 8, the next regular series after the race row back in January, housemate Emily Parr was removed from the house hours after using the word "nigger" towards housemate Charley Uchea. This swift action was seen as a sign from the producers that they have learned from the criticism following the Shilpa Shetty incident. During the series, the fire alarm sounded resulting in the housemates having to evacuate the building via the fire exit in the bedroom. After waiting at the security gate, they were told that everywhere had been checked and that it was safe to re-enter the house.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Anger over Big Brother 'racism'. BBC News
- ^ C4 holds the fort Digital Spy Published on December 1, 2006, URL last accessed on December.
- ^ Channel Four Axes Celebrity Big Brother |Sky News|Home
- ^ ITV planning move for Big Brother MediaGuardian.co.uk Retrieved 2007-08-30
- ^ ITV "in talks" to poach Big Brother Digital Spy Retrieved 2007-08-30
- ^ Turner, Kevin. (June 3, 2006) Daily Record Sleazy big bro boys as top buddies again; Eviction vote in the house as nominee face chop - House survivor Richard will 'look after' Imogen. Section: News; Page 4.
- ^ Sunday Mirror (May 21, 2006) Odds to win. Section: Features; Page 4.
- ^ a b Methven, Nicola. (June 3, 2006) The Daily Mirror Fail, Sezer. The long hot summer of bruv; Sleazer out ...with 91% of vote. Section: Features; Page 10.
- ^ BBC News (June 8, 2002) and radio/2031908.stm
- ^ CBBC News (November 30, 2002)film/newsid 2530000/2530233.stm
- ^ http://www.c21media.net/news/detail.asp?article=40911&area=1
- ^ Jade: I'm so f***ing scared. Daily Star (20 January 2007). Retrieved on 2007-01-20.
- ^ Brook, Stephen (17 January 2007). Big Brother complaints explode. Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
- ^ Sponsor evicts C4's Big Brother. BBC News (8 March 2007). Retrieved on 2007-03-08.
- ^ Blair and India step into CBB row. Mirror (17 January 2007). Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
- ^ Channel 4 denies Brother 'racism'. BBC News (17 January 2007). Retrieved on 2007-01-17.
- ^ Paris Hilton considering Celebrity Big Brother? » Fametastic
- ^ Celebrity Big Brother axed (TeleText)
- ^ "Very exciting Big Brother news", Heatworld.com, 2007-10-22. Retrieved on 2007-10-22.
- ^ News Flash: Dermot's quitting Big Brother's Little Brother!
- ^ a b "BB Celebrity Hijack", Channel 4, 2007-10-08. Retrieved on 2007-10-08.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
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